all.wav
"What is this about?"
"Your brothers were killed in combat."
"Which, which ones?"
"All of them."
beach.wav
"I'll see you on the beach."
brothers.zip +1MB
"Colonel I've got something you should know about."
"Yes?"
"These two men died in Normandy this morning. Omagh beach."
"Shaun Ryan."
"This man at Utah."
"Peter Ryan."
"This man was killed last week in New Guinea."
"Daniel Ryan."
"The three men are brothers, sir. I've just learned that this afternoon their mother is going to be getting all three telegrams. That's not all, there is a fourth brother, the youngest. He parachuted in with 101st Airborne the night before the invasion. He's somewhere in Normandy we don't know where."
"Is he alive?"
"We don't know."
earnthis.wav
"They're tank busters, sir, P51's."
"Angels on our shoulders."
"... what sir?"
"James, earn this... earn it."
math.zip +1MB
"Do you want to explain the math of this to me? I mean where's the sense in risking the lives of the eight of usto save one guy?"
"Anybody want to answer that?"
"Reiben, think about the poor bastard's mother."
"Hey doc, I got a mother alright. I mean you got a mother, Sergent's got a mother, I mean shit I bet even the Captain's got a mother. Well maybe not the Captain but the rest of us got mothers."
"There is not to reason why there is but to do and die."
"Lala, lala, lala, lala, lala, lala. What the f*** is that supposed to mean Corporal, huh? We're all supposed to die is that it?"
"Upham is talking about our duty as soldiers."
"Yes, sir."
"We all have orders and we have to follow them, that supersedes everything including our mothers."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
"Even if you think the mission is FUBAR, sir?"
"Especially if you think the mission is FUBAR."
"What's FUBAR?"
"Oh it's German."
"I never heard of that."
mission.zip +1MB
"You see when you end up killing one of you men you tell yourself it happened so that you could save the lives of two or three or ten others, you know. Maybe a hundred others. Do you know how many men I have lost under my command?"
"How many?"
"Ninety-four. But that means I've saved the lives of ten times that many doesn't it? Maybe even twenty, twenty times as many. And that's how simple it is. That's how you rationalise making the choice between the mission and the men."
"Except this time the mission is a man."
mrsryan.wav
"My dear Mrs. Ryan. It's with the most profound sense of joy that I write to inform you that your son, Private James Ryan, is well and at this very moment on the way home from European battlefields. Reports from the front indicate James did his duty in combat with great courage and steadfast dedication, even after he was informed of the tragic loss your family has suffered in this great campaign to rid the world of tyranny and oppression. I take great pleasure in joining the Secretary of War, the men and women of the United States Army and the citizens of a greatful nation in wishing you good health and many years of happiness with James at your side."
savingpr.wav
"Part of me thinks the kid's right. What has he done to deserve this? He wants to stay here? Fine lets leave him and go home."
"Yeah."
"But another part of me thinks, what if by some miracle we stay and actually make it out of here. Someday we might look back on this and decide, saving private ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole god-awful, shitty mess."
